Pat McCabe makes a return to Galway for a public interview hosted by the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway on Wednesday, 20 March. The interview will be conducted by Kevin Barry, author of There are Little Kingdoms, which won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2007, City of Bohane (2011) and Dark Lies the Island (2012).

Pat McCabe’s 1992 novel The Butcher Boy, which ‘takes you seductively to places you had no wish to visit’ as ‘Dennis the Menace becomes Jack the Ripper’ (The Observer), was awarded the Irish Times-Aer Lingus Prize for fiction and brilliantly adapted to film by Neil Jordan. His subsequent novels include The Dead School (1995), Breakfast on Pluto (1998), also adapted to film with Cillian Murphy in the lead role, and Winterwood (2006).

During his visit to NUI Galway, where he was writer in residence in 1999, McCabe will contribute to the Centre for Irish Studies Archive of Irish Writers. The archive includes recordings of more than 25 authors, including John McGahern, Eugene McCabe, Hugo Hamilton, Dermot Healy, Desmond Hogan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Biddy Jenkinson, Paul Durcan, and Paula Meehan.

The public interview will take place in the O’Flaherty Theatre at 8.00pm. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.